I am fortunate to work for Trimble. I get to work with interesting technology, use really cool products designed by Trimble employees and work with pretty active folks. Some of the guys do what is called "Adventure" motorcycle riding. It's not your average dirt-bike riding or dual sport riding. This type of riding is in remote areas for days at a time.
I've always been an outdoors person, skiing, biking, hiking, rock-climbing, kayaking and mountaineering. With 25 years of hardcore mountain biking under my belt, I figured I would give adventure riding a try. On my 50th birthday, I bought a Kawasaki KLR 650 and outfitted it for adventure.
The guys at work were really helpful, showing me what equipment to buy and teaching me how to ride. Learning to control a 350-pound motorcycle on rugged trails is hard. It took me a while to get past riding in a constant state of fear. Watching me pick up my bike in a stream over and over was a great source of amusement for these guys. Now, I've been riding for a year and a half, and I'm at a point where I feel safe and have fun riding. These days, I tend to help others pick up their bikes.
Adventure riding takes you far away from civilization where you have to rely on your skills and equipment. For example, a 200-mile, 8-hour ride could range over 100 miles leaving us far away from any kind of assistance or cell phone coverage. Knowing our location is very important so we carry multiple navigation aids including route descriptions, maps, compasses and GPS devices including the Trimble Nomad.
It's important to stay safe and on course. Being part of Trimble and working on GPS for 15 years, I wanted to plan and track my rides with one of our products. Trimble does a great job of designing rugged products, and the Nomad is a great example. I attached a Nomad to the handlebars of my bike using the vehicle mount. So far, it has covered over 3000 miles of mainly off road riding.
The bright screen with high resolution is great for displaying 24K topographical maps. With the CF and SD memory card slots, I can store 24K topo maps for all of California and Nevada, as well as the waypoints for our daily routes. The detailed topo's on the Nomad has solved some tough navigation problems. The routes we plan are not always passable, and we sometimes have to bail out because of injury, fatigue or mechanical problems.
The Nomad runs off the shelf Windows Mobile mapping applications that allow us to plan new routes on the fly. With the power saving design and long-life battery, I am able to leave the Nomad on all day long. When the ride is over the Nomad keeps on working, displaying pictures from the day, connecting to WiFi for email and planning for the next day's ride.
